Four hurt when flight from Birmingham crashes in Chattanooga

CHATTANOOGA -- Four occupants of a twin-engine propeller plane that took off from Alabama and crashed in the parking lot of a shopping center were being treated in a hospital Thursday.

Investigators were looking into whether the plane ran out of fuel as it approached to land at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport on a flight from Birmingham police Sgt. Jerri Weary said.

Ron Turner, the owner of electrical contracting company Amteck of Kentucky, was on the plane with company president Darren Turner and Ron Turner's brother-in-law, Louis Mullins, company project manager John Dougherty said.

Ron Turner was in guarded condition at Erlanger Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. The other two men were in fair condition. The pilot, whose name and condition were not released, was also being treated at the hospital.

Witnesses told police that the plane was approaching the nearby runway at an unusually low altitude when it clipped a utility pole and cartwheeled into at least two unoccupied cars in the parking lot of the Brainerd Village Shopping Center.

One of the bystanders who helped rescue the occupants, medical assistant Melissa Davis, said all four were conscious and talking when they were rescued.

A block of the busy commercial road near where the plane came to rest was closed Thursday for the investigation. The site is about five miles east of downtown Chattanooga.

The wreckage of a twin-engine aircraft lies in the parking lot of a shopping center in Chattanooga late Wednesday. Authorities said the private plane crashed as it prepared to land at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport after leaving Birmingham. Photo special to the Birmingham News by Angela Lewis of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.